I praised their brand new EP “Access Code” as one of the best from 2014, which leads me to do this interview. What is really on their minds? An answers we need to know…
Greetings from Malaysia. Who’s answering to this? How are you?
Tiberius: What’s up Malaysia?! This is Morph and Tiberius from Deconstructing Sequence. We’re doing really good, currently making plans how to blow you all into outer space with our music haha!
2. Before we go to “Access Code”, tell me more about NORTHWAIL and your other musical background?
Morph: Northwail was a band I’ve started as a teenager. Me and my friend were the only people listening to black metal in our little town. There were some death metal bands around so by the time we picked up our instruments we’ve started a black metal band inspired by Satyricon, Emperor, Immortal, Mayhem, Taake and stuff like that. As time passed I’ve stumbled upon more avant-garde and progressive forms of metal, which instantly fitted my taste and had a major influence on the music I’ve created. From tr00 kvlt black metal band we’ve evolved into ambitious prog/avant-garde BM group. We were looking for a guitar player and that’s how I’ve met Tiberius.
3. Why choose the name, DECONSTRUCTING SEQUENCE?
Tiberius: The name Deconstructing Sequence is a result of looking for something that is going to describe our music. Our songs are a huge mind-blowing sequence of riffs and ideas. This sequence is then deconstructed through odd time signatures and unconventional arrangements. The name stands also for mixing Extreme Metal with Progressive/ Post Rock Music. Mayhem’s LP title “Ordo ad Chao” is a good description of our music - Order through Chaos! Brilliant!!!
Morph: Yeah, we went through a lot of different names and finally ended up with this one. When you hold our CD in your hands and read the name, you can expect what’s to come! It’s not easy to digest, just like our music, haha!
4. Let’s get to the visual first. Who came out with the idea? Looking back to “Year One”, even it looks like a typical pop or R&B design. Ironically it best fits DECONSTRUCTING SEQUENCE’s musical direction. It has the ‘here and beyond’ agenda.
Tiberius: Because we’re science fiction freaks we watch loads of si-fi movies. One day I seen looking for something new I came by a description to the movie “Another Earth” by Mike Cahill. After watching it I though “wow this is what we are looking for!!!” It didn’t take us long to decide this will be our visual side to the first EP. Personal struggle, looking for a place in this world and all this inside a science-fiction story about the discovery of a planet that seems exactly like ours. Going there you can change Your life, getting back the things and people you lost in the past. Great movie!
Morph: For our second EP we’ve got into collaboration with Costin Chiorineau. One day Tiberius sent me a lyric video to new Mayhem song “Psywar”. We are both great fans of the band, so we were waiting to see what they can do seven years after “Ordo ad Chao”. Song was ok, but the thing that got my attention was the video itself. Hand drawn animated objects, very cold and dark atmosphere. I thought “man, this is cool, it could work for us!” So we’ve contacted him, he liked our music and after some email exchange we got him to work with us! Apart from being a great dude he is a very talented graphic artist. He did both the video to our song “A Habitable World Is Found” and designed all the graphics for the EP “Access Code”. His style is exactly what we needed, cold, futuristic and yet very different from the generic flashy sci-fi imagery you get nowadays. He collaborated with Attila Csihar from Mayhem on a very atmospheric animated short, and you should definitely check out his work for Carach Angren!
5. Thanks man. I will check it out! “Access Code” is your best work so far, musically and lyrically. It is perfect blend of aggression and melody. It is a very intense, yet harmonic experience. Some experts said, DS sounds like combination of NILE, MESHUGGAH, GOJIRA, EMPEROR. How can DS can be related to such compliments? Do you agreed with those opinion?
Tiberius: Yes, we are very happy with “Access Code” and it’s feedback. We had over 40 reviews from Canada, US and Europe, nomination to the albums of the year in canada and video of the year as well. The name Deconstructing Sequence is slowly getting in peoples heads. As it is still a new name it obviously needs time. With this EP we reached the level we wanted but also realized there are things we can do better both musically and production. And Yes, we will do better! Nile, Meshugga??? Definitely we listen to this bands but what is the point of copying these bands. They already exist and probably there is 100 bands playing like them. There is small elements, ideas but nothing else than that. Also, do you think we can play like Karl Sanders?!!
Morph: fuck no…
6. Hahaha! Karl Sanders conjured ancient wisdom to play such guitar tunes. Nowadays, when they say ‘musician’, even computer nerd who know 4 guitar chords claimed to be a musician. Last month, in Malaysian Music Awards (AJL) the winner was using sampling to karaoke on stage and grab the grand price. Do you think, this is the era of cyber music? I mean you don’t have to keep it organic anymore?
Morph: As long as technology isn’t abused it’s ok. They say 4 chords is everything you need for every pop song ever, haha! If that guy can’t play instruments, but has thousands great ideas, like Skrillex, then why not?. Ok we can brag if dubstep is music or just sounds of transformers copulating, but the point is, technology is ok as long as you are not trying to use it to mask your flaws as a musician. If the band can’t match their studio work because of tremendous amounts of punch-ins, copy/paste, quantisation, auto-tune and stuff like that used on the recording, then we have a serious abuse. And you can really tell when you see band live. Songs don’t have the same punch and sharpness anymore, vocals are weaker… generally “it’s not the same anymore”. One extreme situation was several years ago in Poland. Our friend was producing a band with completely inept musicians. He had to track them literally note by note and when they played their first gig right afterwards they even didn’t make it to the third song. They fell apart on stage and left. On the other side of spectrum you have bands like Nile or Gojira… Have you ever heard them live? You should, even if you are not into them. It’s kind of a live experience that crushes your soul. They are 100% tight and reproduce their studio work perfectly aiding it with the wall of sound of the live performance. When I go to concert I want the same experience I know from the album, but reinforced with the gig atmosphere, I don’t want any substitutes, reduced or simplified parts. So if you are using studio chicanery to create great music please continue, but don’t pretend you can match it live and don’t try to sell it that way. I got very disappointed by Mastodon. Their guitarwork is flawless, but their vocal performance… Hit youtube and compare album version of The Motherload with live performance. First – all the effects they used in studio are very creative and fit the song, but in the consequence live vocals sound flat without them. Second…. They should take some vocal lessons.. seriously, they would lose even in a karaoke contest in some smelly pub on the Saturday evening. I won’t buy a ticket to their gig, they cheat, pretend they can deliver you the same experience. Fuck them…
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| AJL 2014 |
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| Behemoth in Brazil 2014 |
7. Anything good and interesting to tell about metal scene in Poland? The media is constantly promoting BEHEMOTH and the story of their leader, Nergal. How big is BEHEMOTH really? Just to tell you, I got a cassette of TURBO first album in my gold collection.
Tiberius: The Metal scene in Poland was always very strong. Years and years pass and we still deliver one of the best bands in the world. In soviet union Poland getting an instrument, amp was very hard. If You got it You would just spend hours on it because you were so happy. This way we produced bands like Vader or Turbo which You mentioned. Full dedication was the only choice, and with dedication came great results. Nowadays we got several bands, the music scene is in great condition. People can get instruments easily, they start playing when they still are young. Obviously the biggest band is Behemoth. Not popular in catholic Poland though. Anywhere else they are huge but in Poland they got still concert that get canceled cause of Catholic fucking fanatics. Secondly because of Nergal’s love story with pop singer Doda, most of the metal maniacs just shit on him and Behemoth. Nergal became a TV star, a V.I.P, an actor, a businessman. All his talking about being honest to yourself is just a piece of bullshit! The music itself was high class, but just till Demigod era. Later on it was just weak and reached the bottom with The Satanist. Don’t get me wrong, they deserve to be huge cause they went through years of hard work and dedication. Nowadays though Behemoth is just a cash machine. With their Music Status they can deliver even shit albums but will still get them sold and they will make people believe what they do is supreme. There are better bands in Poland than Behemoth. Not Vader though haha : ) They play the same stuff for years now. Vesania, Azarath, Decapitated, Morowe are the bands You should look for!
8. Modern Metal, Nu Metal, American Metal. Your opinion?
Tiberius: SHIT, SHITTIER, THE SHITTIEST!!!
Morph: Yeah Tiberius has very strict opinion about that, haha! Personally I’m not rejecting any music genre. I enjoy some pop bands, dubstep, electronica, rock, ambient, all different kind of stuff that has some artistic values, even mainly production-wise like In This Moment. I like Slipknot, not all of their material, but some songs. They focus on making energetic music and do their job good. I’m a great fan of System Of A Down! Their songwriting is very eclectic, they did a lot of great music. Also if you consider Gojira or Tesseract a “modern” metal then yeah I’m definitely into them! I don’t enjoy the “old school” that much, I’m not into old Metallica, Slayer, Death and stuff like that. I dislike nowadays bands proud to recreate “that 80’s metal style”. 80’s were thirty years ago, move on dude… music is about innovation.
9. What you do for a living beside music? Do you like any other form of art?
Tiberius: The best artist in history we're drinking and taking drugs to help their imagination. We just learn from them hahhaha. My hobby beside music is drinking Rum and planing on conquering the world! There might be weed there too haha.
Morph: Yeah we like to relax at 4:20, haha! Besides music I’m a very busy person. I’m working with nature protection and research, also I’m finishing my PhD in biology. I was always a scientific person, even as a kid. I had a bunch of books about nature of universe. Ancient civilizations, animals, space… I was really into that and it determined not only my carrier choices but also musical choices. I’m techy guy and I like to incorporate technology into music, right now we are planning our rig for live shows. Recreating DS extreme space opera experience live will be a daunting task not only in terms of performance, but also rig configuration and we have some edgy ideas to accomplish that. Probably everything will be computer-controlled, otherwise we are into some serious tap-dancing with foot controllers, haha!
10. What are your personal beliefs? Are you Jedi or something?
Tiberius: No God, No Jesus, No Budda, No Allah. We are alone in this world. Don't blame them for the shit things about your life, blame yourself. There won't be any divine intervention to cover Your fuckups!!! Believe in Yourself!
Morph: Pagan! I’m empowered by nature, this is the only force not to be messed with if we don’t wanna be into some serious trouble! So remember kids, protect the environment or Captain Planet WILL kill you!
11. Tell me more about your plan for a debut album which in recording process now?
Tiberius: The idea of making a full length started already a year ago when we still were doing "Access Code" From March till October we were writing riffs as many as we could. When we finished we had about 70 minutes of music from which we took about 55 and created 9 songs. From October till January we practiced and during 4 days in the begging of January we recorded nearly all guitar tracks. For recordings we used a Engl Powerball just to get this tube motion and good feeling while playing. The main goal was to record clean guitar tracks that will be re-amped later on to get the sound we want. We recorded guitars on my Artimus "Dark Forest" custom guitar. Probably for the first time we didn't have to think about the sound. We just plugged it in and it was perfect!!! At this moment we are prepping the songs for our drummer who is going to arrange and record drum tracks. After that we gonna focus on bas and vocals and then mix and mastering will take place. If we run on schedule we should release our debut LP still in 2015! We will destroy You guys!!!
12. You guys seem to be happy working with Aro and Monroe Studio so far? Will you stick with this studio in the future?
Morph: Aro is creative, so we argue a lot, we like that, haha! He is doing his job as a producer, he is not there to merely glue the tracks together. Before dedicating himself to music production he was running a pretty successful band Shadows Land, so he is not only technician, but also a fellow artist and an experimenter. He had some great ideas that we incorporated into mixing process. If you wanna do metal around here you work with him, no doubts.
13. DS played any gigs lately?
Tiberius: Because of living in different counties (England-Poland) any life performance is not possible. It should change this year, we have plans for playing live but this topic is for further time.
Morph: First things first, we need to focus on the album right now. But be sure DS live will be as sick experience as it is on CD!
14. Thanks for your time. Any message or access code to your music before we stop this session?
Tiberius: Many thanks for the interview! For you Malaysian Metal Heads, stay in tune and follow us on our facebook page. We are going to blow You into Mars and back with our LP. Prepare Your space ship and wait for the messages from the MotherShip!!!
